[Who_are_you]

I consider myself to be a safe and defensive driver, who follows all the rules of the land. During the recent weekend drive, I forced my co-passengers on the rear-seat use seat belt.

During the drive, they pointed out I am over speeding as it is as bad as breaking any other law (Hint: wearing the seat belt). This made me check stats on accidents due to over speeding in India and these are eye-opening.

As per government data, we had 1,036,787 death related to Overspeed in last 9 years.

Tamil Nadu has the highest number of casualties with total 269,159 death and 134,584 death per year.
Maharashtra has the highest average number of casualties with average death of 161, 847 death per year.






Data Source.

Speeding led to 66% of road accidents in the Year 2018 - Source

Drivers’fault has been revealed as the single most responsible factor for road accidents, accounted for 77.1 percent of total road accidents during 2015 as against 78.8 percent during 2014. Within the category of drivers’fault, road accidents caused and persons killed due to exceeding lawful speed/over speeding by drivers accounted for a share of 62.2 percent (2,40,463 out of 3,86,481 accidents) and 61.0 percent (64,633 out of 1,06,021 deaths) respectively. -Source

Overspeeding - No. 1 cause for road fatalities Source

Please drive responsibly. Be the change you want to be.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Road Safety Section. Thanks for sharing!

Here is a related thread (Do the 80 / 120 kmph speed alerts dissuade you from driving at higher speeds?).

[sharktale]

Chose "Only If I am aware of speed guns/cameras."

My drive is limited to Kolkata city roads at the moment.
Firstly, there are rare opportunities of attaining the trifecta : when the tarmac is smooth, traffic's absent and there is no crossing for a km or two.
Moreover, the max speed limit in the city is 60, even on flyovers, which feels like a Slo-Mo movie and just wants the inner me to let go.

So when opportunity strikes, I do too.

With the Grand i10, I can actually feel the whole "Fast and Furious" sequence, me pressing the accelerator, extra fuel being pumped into the pistons and finally being converted to raw power (alas, without fire or smoke). That's an exhilarating experience for my soul.

Nonetheless, I don't reach breakneck speeds, hovering around 90-100 kmph and being in control, slowing down as soon as I spot a crossing or vehicle close-by.

[bharat4ever]

It's very hard to follow the speed limits, especially on city roads.
I know places in Bangalore where the speed limits are 30 kmph, but none of the other motorists around you are following the speed limit, which in turn means you start impeding traffic.

[SmartCat]

I subconsciously follow these speed limits:

Narrow residential roads - 20 kmph (am scared of little kids running across)
Single lane city roads - 40 kmph
Double lane city roads - 60 kmph
Single lane highways - 80 kmph (might momentarily go over this limit while overtaking)
Double lane highways - 100 kmph
3+3 lane expressways - 120 kmph

Originally Posted by Who_are_you

During the drive, they pointed out I am over speeding as it is as bad as breaking any other law. This made me check stats on accidents due to over speeding in India and these are eye-opening.
As per government data, we had 1,036,787 death related to Overspeed in last 9 years.

I don't think govt data is reliable. These guys (police?) put "overspeeding" as cause of accidents when they don't want to bother investigating what happened. You need solid scientific evidence to prove that a vehicle was going over the speed limit (not always marked).

[deehunk]

I follow the speed limits and traffic rules, even teaching my little daughter about road safety. I became more cautious post neuro surgery, my adherence to speed limits reflects in fuel efficiency.

[swissknife]

I chose "others" since there is no "most often". I am more often than not within speed limits. However, where the speed limits are unreasonable (eg. Kathipara clover leaf in Chennai, where the speed limit is 20kph) I could be found to be over the speed limit.

[airbus]

I selected Yes. Unless specifically stated a higher speed limit, on best of highways also I try to maintain 80 kmph.

[SR-71]

I try to stick to limits where it is reasonable, but am also prone to making reasonable judgement calls where I feel necessary. For example the outer ring road in Bangalore always had consistent limit of 60Kmph which is reasonable given Bangalore's traffic pattern. However of late, I have seen boards with 30 Kmph restriction spring up in a few portions of the road where the road is well secured from any intrusion from by-lanes. It sort of makes no sense to me. So I stick to 60 in these areas too. On highways. I drive between 90 to 110 depending on the time of the day and condition of the road and traffic.

[nikhilthegunner]

Originally Posted by SmartCat

I subconsciously follow these speed limits:

Narrow residential roads - 20 kmph (am scared of little kids running across)
Single lane city roads - 40 kmph
Double lane city roads - 60 kmph
Single lane highways - 80 kmph (can momentarily go over this limit while overtaking)
Double lane highways - 100 kmph
3+3 lane expressways - 120 kmph

I too follow the same speeds but never exceed 100 kmph on the highway unless an overtaking manoeuver requires higher speed. 120 feels too fast for me while 100 is the perfect cruising speed IMO.

[blackwasp]

I have voted yes. As this holds true in my highway drives. I'm more of a good 'average time' guy than a go fast guy. I will try to improve my average time using tricks like leaving early, combining a fuel halt and loo break, planning meal stops in advance so there's no last minute confusion and proximity to the highway.

In city driving, I just don't care how fast as I go as my average speeds are around 20-22 km/h on good days. There are rare chances where breaking speed limits is possible.

[reignofchaos]

I follow speed limits when they are reasonable. However there are many places in Bangalore where you have a 3+3 carriageway and the speed limit posted is 60 or in some cases even 40.

There's no point following the speed limit in that case as it is very hard to keep a modern turbo petrol at 40kph while lorries, minicabs and ubers fly past you at double the limit..

[abhishek46]

In most of the roads, the speed limit is not explicitly mentioned.

How will people follow the speed limit, if they do not have that sort of awareness?

[luvDriving]

I choose sometimes meaning whenever I am on the expressway or any highway.

While driving in the city, if not driving at crawling speed, it is impossible to go consistently at speeds exceeding 40kmph. OTOH on some roads which are relatively free, I try to go by the speed limit but for my own safety (and for other's too) I have to go by the speed of the traffic. e.g. one flyover has a speed limit of 30 whereas most vehicles are going at speeds of 60 and above.

So while in the city I try to move along with the traffic speed taking care of going only so fast as I can brake and stop in time if anything unexpected happens.

[V.Narayan]

I choose 'Yes'. To that I'll add 'Always'. Why would one do otherwise. We don't fit a fire hose to our bathroom shower or jam a 110 volt instrument into a 440 volt power line or will that the elevator in the tall building move a faster than its design speed....The road is a public asset after all. I am probably out of date.